Sunscorch (Rise To Omniscience Book 8)

by Aaron Oster

  He extended his hands, and a powerful beam of burning hot light blasted forward, lancing into the Guardian’s side and burning a hole through the vines. The beast roared again as green and silver goo spurted from its side, but Morgan kept the skill going, channeling the power of the sun through himself and continuing to burn through his RP as he tried to drill a hole right to the center of the massive monster.

  Standing still for too long in a battle like this was a mistake, as, despite the pain, the Guardian unleashed another assault. The ground before him came alive as dozens of vines pulled up, all glowing with an ominous red light. They began whipping down at him, sending burning hot lances of pain wracking through his body.

  He released his hold on the Sunblast and dove to the side, noting dark red welts on the patches of exposed skin he saw through his torn clothes. A violet light flared around the beast as it rose back to its feet, and Morgan cursed as he realized it had activated its supermage shield. It had been so long since he’d used his own that he’d forgotten about it.

  Still, two could play that game.

  A violet shield of his own cloaked his body, covering him in a shimmering shell of reiki. He used Maximum Increase again, rushing toward the Guardian bear and pulling his spear from its head. It slapped into his palm right as he leaped into the air, driving it at the beast’s eye. The bear raised a paw, and Morgan’s blow – powered by quadrupled Strength – slammed through its shield and sank deep into its paw.

  The Guardian roared again and yanked its paw to the side, revealing an open mouth with a glowing golden orb just a few feet from his face. Recognizing the massive force building up between the creature’s jaws, Morgan released the spear, placing both feet on the beast’s paw, and vaulted back through the air. He did a backflip, then activated an extra skill of his own, his Shooting Star Inferno.

  His body was engulfed in a burning light so bright that it blinded the massive beast. With this skill active, Morgan’s flight was temporarily returned to him, and he dove, slamming into the beast with all the power his skill possessed.

  The impact burned a massive swath of the vines in the creature’s sides, driving it back a dozen yards and shredding the vines keeping it tethered to the ground. The beast’s roar of pain was deafening. Silver liquid poured from the torn ends of the vines, but if he’d been expecting the beast to drop, he’d have been sorely disappointed.

  Instead of weakening the beast, releasing it from its hold seemed only to strengthen it, and even as he pummeled its body with powerful punches, burning away at its hide and sending towering pillars of roaring fire skyward, its body shifted. The vines pulled away from its form, revealing a full body made of the same dark crystal with a bright, violet core at its center.

  The green vines reformed, twining around its head and offering greater protection than before, forming a living armor as the silver vines withered and died. Morgan flipped back through the air, completing his extra skill’s attack by extending a pillar of fire over a hundred feet into the air.

  The blue-tinged flames roared skyward, engulfing the Guardian in its entirety as he landed back on his feet, already reaching for his 10th Category Gravity Breaker. He knew that as soon as the attack cleared, the Guardian would be attacking, and he would be damned if he went down now, especially after all he’d been through.

  He rose into the air, even as a funnel cloud gathered above the beast. The roaring inferno vanished, revealing a half-burned and glowing Guardian. The vines around its head had been burned away, but in its mouth sat the glowing, golden ball of energy. Worse, another dozen appeared around its body, burning with the same intensity as his own skill.

  He and this beast were evenly matched on every level — strength, intelligence, and might. But there was one area in which he excelled, and it was this that pushed him forward, to defeat the undefeatable and crush all who opposed him — his tenacity, his unwillingness to lose, no matter what.

  Twelve beams of golden light slammed into him, just as the storm fell upon the beast. Burning, violet fire engulfed it in a wild conflagration, even as his body was assaulted by the burning heat and sheer destructive force of the Guardian’s attack.

  Morgan rose shakily to his feet. His clothes had been completely burned away, leaving him blackened and bloodied. Smoke rose from his body, wafting into the air. He couldn’t hear a thing, couldn’t smell or taste. But he could see.

  Thirty yards away, on the other side of the glowing pool, lay the Guardian of Eternal Youth. Its body was cleanly split in two, the crystal half-melted into the ground, and its core lie right next to the Well.

  Morgan felt his cracked and burned lips pull up into a painful grin. In the end, it seemed he’d persevered and won a battle that should have seen them both dead. From where he stood, he could see the tip of the silver spear, still poking from the bear’s half-melted paw, and called to it. She obeyed, flying to land neatly in his outstretched hand.

  He planted the butt of the spear into the ground, and with Sarah’s help, hobbled over to bathe in The Well of Eternal Youth.

  32

  “Sit still and relax. Otherwise, you’ll just make it worse!”

  Katherine hissed as Elyssa pressed the cool cloth into the angry red mark on her knee, while Beatrice and Hilda tried to hold her in place.

  “I don’t see how this is helping,” Katherine growled, trying to jerk her knee out of the way.

  “It won’t, if you don’t sit still and let me help!” Elyssa snapped, grabbing Katherine’s leg and pressing the cloth to it a bit more forcefully than necessary.

  Katherine yelped and jerked her leg out of Elyssa’s grip. The girl might be powerful, but Katherine’s Strength was legendary for a reason.

  “Fine!” Elyssa said. “Do it yourself!”

  She angrily threw the cloth at Katherine’s chest, then moved over to sit on the couch as far away from the woman as she could manage. It was a small space, so she couldn’t escape her entirely.

  The walls rattled, and dust rained down on them as Katherine pressed the cloth to her own knee, grumbling quietly to herself and glaring at the elf out of the corner of her eye.

  “What were you thinking?” Hilda asked as Beatrice went over to join Elyssa on the couch. “Going out there alone? You could have been killed!”

  “And what would you have me do?” Katherine snapped back. “Stay in here and wait for them to come in and kill us all?”

  “No,” Hilda said, clearly trying to remain patient. “But what I do expect is for you to act like the ruler of a country! Grace got away, so for all we know, help is just a day away, and if you go out there and get yourself killed, it won’t do anyone any good!”

  “It’s been nearly eight days!” Katherine snapped. “If help was coming, it would have been here by now!”

  Another massive explosion rocked the bunker, and the corner of Elyssa’s eye twitched. While the overall construction and materials used to construct this bunker had been sound, it hadn’t been designed to withstand this level of punishment for this long a time. It was only because of the elf queen’s constant attentions that their shelter was still in place, and she was nearing the limits of what she could handle. And, while she would never admit as much out loud, that was the reason Katherine had attempted to break through earlier that morning.

  She’d been debating the plan silently over the past couple of days, keeping it mostly to herself and only briefly asking Hilda what she thought of it. There was just about any other group of similarly powered people Katherine wished to be stuck with in here, and while she and Hilda were on friendly terms, it was her sister-in-law, Le’vine, with whom she was actually friends.

  Unsurprisingly, Hilda had told her it was a stupid idea to try and break through the enemy lines, and Katherine had agreed. Outwardly, anyway.

  This bunker had not been built to last them this long, nor had there been enough supplies to sustain four people for this long. Especially since Elyssa was burning through their rations at a
n alarming rate – not that anyone blamed her. Having to constantly exert an effort to keep the bunker intact and barely getting any sleep, it was a wonder that she’d remained as calm as she had over the course of their long isolation. If anything, Katherine was the testy one.

  For one, she wanted to look around the crater left behind by that explosion and see if, by some miracle, Morgan was still alive. Of course, she knew that had he still been among the living, he’d have busted them out by now, but hope was all she had at the moment, and it was keeping her on her feet. If she accepted that Morgan was truly gone, she would collapse in on herself, and then, she wouldn’t be able to help anyone.

  Her goals right now were to get Elyssa out alive and prove that someone had betrayed them.

  Elyssa was convinced this attack had something to do with the gnomes, as they were targeting her specifically just as they had back in Faeland. She was also concerned as they’d apparently started working with the Cult of Strangler, a World Beast. Over the last few days, Katherine discovered many things about Faeland, and one of them was that they had four beasts that were supposed to be even stronger than the Pinnacle Kings.

  There were some obvious differences, though. For one, while the Pinnacle Kings either killed or mind-controlled their subjects, the World Beasts actually had their minions voluntarily come to them. Like the Pinnacle Kings, they could share their power with their followers, but while the World Beasts did it through the medium of the special tattoos that all their Cultists bore, the Pinnacle Kings would just infuse it into their victims.

  The World Beasts’ power also wouldn’t warp the appearances of their followers, while the Pinnacle Kings would turn them into twisted monsters. And finally, the biggest difference was in pure strength. While the Pinnacle Kings could weave reiki in their cores and seemed to be around rank 50, the World Beasts had supermage abilities and were all at the old maximum of 100.

  In other words, the World Beasts were bigger, scarier, and more powerful versions of the Pinnacle Kings, and one of them was actively supporting the gnomes in their ambition to start a war, which in her opinion – and the opinions of everyone here – was not a good thing.

  Another explosion rocked the bunker, and cracks appeared along the walls, which were immediately filled and repaired by Elyssa. The elf winced and clutched at her chest, eliciting a look of concern from Hilda.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, quickly moving to the elf’s side.

  “I’m fine,” Elyssa said, trying to brush her off.

  “You’re not fine. Let me see.”

  Katherine averted her eyes as Hilda pulled up the woman’s dress to examine her bindings. Elyssa had taken quite a beating before they’d managed to get to her, but the worst injury had been the one inflicted before her fight had even begun.

  Morgan’s kick to her chest had not only broken several ribs but damaged one of her lungs as well. The lack of rest, constant toll on her power, and lack of a proper healer exacerbated her injuries and made them far worse than they should have been.

  “Oh, that does not look good,” she heard Beatrice say, and despite herself, Katherine turned to look.

  A blanket was draped across the elf’s lap to give her some modicum of decency, but in a small area like this, that was about all she was going to get. Even from here, Katherine could see the problem, and it made her wince in sympathy.

  Her skin was flawless and pale, stretched taut over her stomach. The lines of her musculature were clearly visible, though they were not so deep as to appear unattractive. However, as Katherine’s eyes reached the bindings around Elyssa’s chest, the pale skin suddenly turned an angry red.

  Hilda clucked her tongue as she lifted the bindings higher, revealing the bottoms of the elf’s breasts, and Elyssa winced as Hilda gently ran her fingers over the area. It was covered in a blotchy yellowish-brown bruise, and it was clear by how uneven the skin looked that the broken ribs were aggravating it, despite the tight bindings.

  Worse, Katherine could see several open cuts, all oozing with a pale fluid that showed clear signs of infection. Supermage, she might be, but her body could only fight it off for so long. Had she been a normal person, she’d already have died from this, if not from Morgan’s kick. Under normal circumstances, even without the aid of a healer, she’d likely have recovered just fine. But with so many of her rescores concentrated on keeping the bunker in one piece, she was barely holding it together.

  “I’m going to need to try and clean those out again and change the bandages,” Hilda said, releasing her grip and allowing the dress to fall back down.

  “I don’t know how much good that’ll do,” Elyssa said, trying – and failing – to hide another grimace of pain. “Without a proper healer, it won’t get any better.”

  “We can always try my suggestion,” Beatrice said, holding up a hand and producing a flickering blue flame.

  “Let’s keep that as a last resort, shall we?” Hilda said. “We wouldn’t want to scar that lovely skin of hers.”

  “Yes,” Elyssa agreed. “I would very much prefer to avoid any and all scarring.”

  She didn’t say aloud what everyone was thinking. Beatrice’s solution might be barbaric and horrifically painful, but burning the infection out might be their only chance at preventing her death if help didn’t arrive within the next day or so. Worse, as soon as Beatrice began, the bunker would need to last on its own until she was finished, as it would take all Elyssa had to keep herself from passing out or dying.

  “Help her out of her dress, would you?” Hilda asked her as Beatrice went to fill a small bowl with their ever dwindling-supply of water to be heated.

  Katherine grunted and moved to help the elf queen as she’d been asked. Her own small burn was nothing compared to what she was enduring now, and, honestly, was all her fault. Sure, Elyssa would probably have died had Morgan not kicked her off the side of the mountain, but that wasn’t exactly the elf’s fault.

  “Please raise your arms for me,” she said, crouching before the elf.

  Elyssa gave her an even look and did what she said. The two of them hadn’t exactly gotten along over their time trapped together, but they had yet to really talk about their issues.

  Katherine reached down and pulled the dress up and over the elf’s head, revealing her body in all its lithe and athletic glory. Still, she was confident enough in her own body, which in her opinion – and the opinions of hundreds of suitors – was the most desirable in all the Five Kingdoms, that she wasn’t bothered by it.

  “I understand that you had feelings for him,” Elyssa said after Katherine began to unwind the bandages from her chest. “What I don’t understand is why you’re still holding that against me, despite the fact that he’s gone.”

  Katherine’s hands twitched, and she pulled a little too hard on the bandages, causing Elyssa to wince.

  “He’s not gone, just missing,” Katherine said, still in denial.

  “Regardless of what the truth might be,” Elyssa said, as her bandages came loose. “Why are you still holding a grudge.”

  If she was at all embarrassed to be sitting half-naked in front of them all, it didn’t show on her face, and Katherine wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or annoyed.

  “Because,” she said, keeping her voice even despite the anger welling up inside of her. “It’s your fault he was up there alone for as long as he was after defeating the Pinnacle King. Had you not shown up and kept him there for more than half an hour, we’d have been long gone from the area before they could have ambushed him.”

  “They would have found another chance. You know that, right?” Elyssa asked.

  “Maybe,” Katherine admitted. “But if he hadn’t had to save you, he might have made it out of there in time.”

  “You can’t seriously be blaming me for those gods attacking him!” Elyssa exclaimed, then winced and clutched at her side.

  “Try not to get overexcited,” Hilda scolded as she tore strips of fabric into
bandages and began soaking them in the boiling water.

  “I can’t blame you for the actions of others,” Katherine said. “But I can blame you for your own.”

  Her eyes narrowed as Elyssa averted hers. She knew something was up, that something had happened right before the attack to distract him. Otherwise, Morgan would have felt those gods coming from a mile off. Elyssa wasn’t telling the whole truth, and she was going to find out what the woman was hiding.

  “Well, I wasn’t the one who attacked him,” Elyssa said.

  Another explosion rocked the bunker – this one, stronger than the last – followed immediately by four more. Elyssa grew pale for a moment as large cracks spread across the walls, and one of the magesteel beams threatened to give way. Sweat beaded on her brow as the stone turned to liquid, filling in all the cracks and reinforcing the beam.

  She breathed out, slumping back on the sofa and taking short, painful breaths. She turned back to Katherine to continue their argument, but the woman had already retreated to the far side of the room, taking a seat and purposefully facing the door, effectively ending the conversation.

  Elyssa knew this was far from over, and if Katherine found out what they’d really been doing before the attack, she might very well try and kill her on the spot. That was why, despite the guilt, Elyssa knew that she had to keep it to herself. Either until they were rescued, and she’d been healed, or when their shelter was overrun, and death was inevitable.

  33

  Morgan swam in a world of endless black, surrounded only by the familiar silvery mists of the Well. He’d been standing there for what felt like hours, but in a place like this, time seemed to hold no true meaning. Before him stood the silver spear – it had appeared just seconds before – and from it poured more mist, slowly collecting into a humanoid shape.